


Escalation

by WANMWAD



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Erotica, F/M, Fluff, Rule 63
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-22 09:05:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19664209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WANMWAD/pseuds/WANMWAD
Summary: Jude Hopps, the first rabbit to join the ZPD, helps his partner Nicky Wilde back to her apartment after a night spent celebrating her first couple weeks on the job. As Jude struggles with his feelings for the vixen, things quickly escalate. This story is a work of erotica in a gender-swapped AU.





	1. Chapter 1

_Art by TheWyvernsWeaver_

* * *

Jude Hopps _hated_ hearing the words "for a bunny." His entire life, from the instant he had dedicated himself to becoming a police officer, he had heard them. It was always condescending, too, a paternal pat on the head for daring to try something no bunny ever had before.

He was smart. For a bunny.

He was a good boxer. For a bunny.

He wasn't emotional. For a bunny.

But as he helped his partner up the stairs of her apartment building, there was one he would grudgingly admit was right. He was strong... For a bunny. But Nicky Wilde was much larger and significantly heavier than he was. Making matters worse, the vixen's apartment building had been designed for mammals larger than bunnies or foxes, and the stairs were just too tall to be easy to climb. When he had visited her in the past, it had merely been annoying. With nearly eighty pounds of inebriated fox leaning heavily into his shoulder, it was very nearly impossible.

But he _could_ do it, and so he did, helping her up one step after another. The drinking had been her idea, of course, her way of celebrating the first Saturday they had off since becoming partners. And naturally enough, the bar had been her idea too. It had actually been some of the most fun Jude had had in ages—at least, until some of their fellow officers showed up. Jude certainly didn't dislike the other officers, and he suspected that the cellphone footage of Wolford belting out songs on the karaoke stage would be shared around the precinct office and beyond, but...

"You're very sweet, Carrots," Nicky said.

Her voice was low and her boozy breath tickled right against his ear. "But I'm a big fox. I can make it up my own stairs."

The fact that she had an arm around Jude's shoulders and was wavering a bit unsteadily didn't exactly suggest that Nicky was telling the truth. "You're drunk," he said firmly.

"And you're not," Nicky replied, her words overly precise as she seemed to focus on not slurring them, "But who had a better time tonight?"

Jude had been drunk exactly once in his life, and that had been enough for him to vow to never drink to excess again. Unlike most of the mammals he had gone to college with, who had made similar vows at one time or another after a particularly rough night, Jude had actually kept it. He had spent their time at the bar nursing a single beer until it had grown so warm in his grasp that he couldn't swallow another sip without gagging on it. Nicky had started with a single cocktail of something red and fruity-smelling that she had been drinking nearly as slowly while they talked. Until, that is, the other officers had shown up and she happily drank everything they bought for her to celebrate.

Jude pushed down a frown. None of the other officers had invited _him_ out for drinks after his first couple weeks, but he could hardly blame Nicky for clicking with them from when she had first reported to the precinct. And it was certainly a good thing that they all accepted her as one of their own, the same way that they had eventually come around with him. Still, it had been so _nice_ to just sit and chat with her before the other officers swept her up into a frenzy of celebration. It had almost been like— "Your ears are droopy," Nicky observed, interrupting Jude's thoughts, "What's going on in that little bunny brain?"

She brought the paw slung around Jude's shoulder around and patted him on the head with a winning smile. And then Nicky fell down the stairs as she lost her balance without his support.

Without even thinking, Jude wrapped his arms around Nicky's waist and pulled her tight, rolling as she pulled him down with her. Mercifully, the steps were wide enough that they simply landed on the next step down. Jude wheezed as Nicky all but knocked his breath out, the vixen landing heavily on top of him. They were both still a moment, and then Nicky started squirming against him.

One of her legs was between both of his and—

 _10-46_ , Jude thought, trying to repress a shiver, _Assisting a motorist. 10-90. Bank alarm._

Running through police codes in his head was something he had been doing a lot more often recently. Last Tuesday, Nicky's luxurious tail had swished to the side as she climbed up into their cruiser, the faint lines of her panties visible as her tight uniform left nothing to the imagination. On Thursday, while their patrol took them through Sahara Square, Nicky had pulled at her top, giving Jude the briefest of glimpses at the gentle swell of her chest as she complained about the heat. _10-22,_ Jude thought desperately, _Disregard._ But he had already begun reacting.

Nicky's leg brushed against him a little more firmly, and Jude took a shuddering breath as he felt himself harden. His swelling cock pulled at the increasingly tight fabric of his pants and—

And then Nicky was off him, standing a bit unsteadily as she reached down to give him a paw up. "My hero," she said, smiling.

She hadn't noticed. Jude wasn't sure if he should have been relieved or disappointed. Part of him _wanted_ her to know, to have felt him react beneath her. He could imagine her smile becoming wicked as she traced one finger down his chest to the fly of his pants. But that was a dangerous thought and Jude pushed it aside. She was his friend, and he shouldn't be ogling her like that creep on the street had a few days ago. The todd had been horribly blatant about it, too, leering down at Nicky as he played at being oh so innocent. At least Nicky hadn't been fooled by him; she had declined his offer to get his number. And if Jude had been happy about that, so what? A good friend wouldn't want their friend going out with some shady mammal.

Nicky pulled Jude back upright easily with one paw, her other clenched tightly around the railing. Jude forgot just how strong she was sometimes, the vixen's lithe frame hiding a deceptive amount of muscle. She was stronger now than she had been when they first met; her time in the academy had seen to it. But Nicky's build was as feminine as it had ever been, the transformation she had undergone all but invisible underneath that vivid fur. And it wasn't just her body that had changed, either. She was still cynical and sarcastic, still prone to talking as though all the world was a joke and she was in on it. But she could be genuine, too, and surprisingly sweet and gentle. Three days ago, when they had run across a wolf cub who had been separated from her mother, Nicky hadn't acted much differently than when Jude had first met her, pulling a hustle and pretending to be Finnick's mother. But for that poor lost and crying wolf cub, it hadn't been an act. It had been who Nicky really was, who she had kept buried for so many years. Seeing Nicky like that made her easy to love.

As a friend.

And as Jude accepted Nicky's weight back on his shoulder, he told himself that it made perfect sense. Friends did love each other; that was the point of being friends, wasn't it? And Nicky _was_ a good friend, the best Jude had ever had. Any further thoughts Jude might have had were lost when he realized they were at the right landing for Nicky's apartment. It was easier getting down the hallway than up the stairs, but Jude kept Nicky's arm around his shoulder anyway. Just in case she needed any support, of course; with her free arm she was rummaging through her purse for her key, weaving a bit, and he didn't want her to fall again.

She pulled out the right one at last, and with a surprisingly steady paw inserted the key into the lock and opened the door. Nicky's apartment was more than large enough for a vixen living alone, the larger scale the building was made to meaning that she had plenty of room. And step stools and stepladders, since even for Nicky all the counters and cabinets were too tall. Maybe it was just because Jude had grown up surrounded by dozens of other bunnies, or maybe because his current apartment was about the size of the closet in Nicky's bedroom, but it felt _too_ large to him. Too empty. It looked as though it had been set up to be shown off to potential buyers rather than a place someone actually lived, everything perfectly neat and orderly but almost devoid of personal touches. There hadn't even been any pictures on the walls until Jude had given Nicky a framed photo of the two of them from her graduation, which made it seem sadly alone hanging in the living room.

But it was Nicky's apartment, and even if there was barely anything Jude could see that made it obvious, the place still smelled like her. It was the same smell Jude had started to grow accustomed to in their cruiser, something floral like violets mixed with something... deeper. Jude didn't have the right word for it; it seemed to pull at the most primal part of his brain, something that said _fox_ just as much as red-orange fur and a fluffy tail did.

"Well here we are," Nicky said cheerfully, stuffing her key back in her purse as they crossed the threshold, "Home again, home again, jiggity-jig."

She padded over to her refrigerator, pulling it open and burrowing her head inside. "Want anything?" she called back without turning around, "I have... water or some really lousy beer."

Without bothering to wait for a response, Nicky emerged with a bottle of water, twisting the cap off with her teeth before chugging it with impressive speed. Jude couldn't help but stare at the way the muscles in her neck worked as the vixen sucked it down, and he coughed, turning aside. "No, thank you," Jude replied, and Nicky shrugged.

"Well, you saw me home safely Officer Hopps," she observed.

"I... Yes, I did," Jude replied awkwardly.

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. Was Nicky trying to drop a hint that he should leave? Or did she want him to make a move?

"You never answered my question, you know," Nicky said, "What _is_ going on in that little bunny brain?"

She was leaning against the kitchen counter, idly rolling the empty plastic bottle from paw to paw. Her words still sounded overly precise, but her eyes were bright and alert, focused on Jude like spotlights. Jude chuckled nervously. "I just... I had a good time. Tonight, I mean. With you."

"And that makes you sad?" Nicky asked, arching one eyebrow, "You must be the biggest workaholic I've ever met."

"No, no," Jude said, waving his paws hastily, "I just wish the night wasn't over."

The words had left his mouth and he couldn't call them back. Nicky went still, the gentle swishing of her tail stopping. She took a step toward Jude, her padded feet noiseless on the polished tile. "Really?" she asked, and before Jude could respond, she had taken another step.

The distance between them couldn't have been more than two feet, and Jude had to crane his neck to look up into Nicky's face. "You know, Carrots, by the time you walk back to the station, take the subway, and then walk back to your apartment it'll be... what? Three, four in the morning?"

"Something like that," Jude managed.

"Hmm," Nicky said, practically purring the syllable as she looked Jude up and down, "Maybe you ought to spend the night."

"Spend the night?" Jude repeated.

His heart was in his mouth, his vision seeming to pulse in a way that had nothing to do with having three quarters of a beer. Jude's imagination began to spin freely, calling up the sound of Nicky giggling girlishly as she pulled him to her bed and—

No.

Not girlishly. Drunkenly. Jude felt ashamed at himself; Nicky had said it herself. She was drunk and he was not. And Nicky was just playful, that was all. She always had been. She was just being friendly, just getting in a subtle little joke at his expense. And if he read more than that into it, he had no right to his badge. "On your couch, you mean," Jude said.

Something in Nicky's face seemed to change without changing, but Jude couldn't say what it was. "On my couch," she agreed, nodding.

Jude's laugh was mixed relief and nerves. He had been right after all; Nicky was just being a good friend. "Spare sheets in that closet," she said, gesturing vaguely, "I'm going to brush the taste of that shot Fangmeyer bought me out of my mouth."

She tipped Jude a wink, opening her mouth wide and stretching out her tongue in an exaggerated and playful gesture of disgust. Jude chuckled, much more naturally than he had laughed, and watched for a moment as she swayed off toward the apartment's single bathroom. Maybe she was playing it up a little, but it felt good to have things the way they were supposed to be.

It hadn't even taken Jude two days as Nicky's partner to learn that the vixen apparently took a dim view toward organizing her desk at work; after her first two weeks it already looked like she had been there two years, all stacks of paper and files and cryptic sticky notes. Despite that, the vixen was fastidiously neat with her apartment, so far as Jude was able to tell, and the closet she had gestured to did indeed contain a set of perfectly folded sheets that were as soft and fuzzy as flannel with age.

Jude hummed vaguely to himself as he set to work on the couch; it was one of the few pieces of furniture that was actually sized right for a fox, which meant that it was almost as wide and somewhat longer than the bed in his own apartment. When he was done, Jude glanced toward the bathroom and realized that the door was still closed. "Nicky?" he called softly.

He couldn't hear the whine of her electric toothbrush anymore, or anything else for that matter; the apartment was so quiet the only sounds were the rumble of late night traffic breezing past. Jude crept closer toward the door, moving as quietly as he could. When he was about ten feet from the door—Nicky's apartment really was too large—he heard something.

Nicky's gentle snores were coming from the bathroom.

Jude looked at the closed door for a long moment, and then at the front door of the apartment. Nicky's apartment building did have a bathroom in the lobby, he knew, but there was a slight problem with that. He didn't have a key to Nicky's apartment, and the door locked automatically when it closed. And Nicky's key was in her purse, which was in the bathroom with her. Jude sighed, and then turned back to the couch. _It'll only be a few hours_ , Jude told himself as he snuggled himself under the sheets and propped his head against a throw pillow, _you'll be fine._

* * *

Jude wasn't sure how long he managed to sleep before he woke up, his bladder telling him that his last thought before drifting off was a lie. He _did_ need to use the bathroom, and badly. He all but sprang off of the couch, heading for the bathroom as quickly as possible.

The door was still closed.

Jude considered the door and the narrow line of light coming from the gap at the bottom of it, listening to Nicky's snores coming from the other side. In his desperation, moving from foot to foot, he considered his next move. All he had to do was find Nicky's purse, borrow the key without waking her up, and then run down to the lobby. Piece of cake, really. Jude turned the doorknob as slowly as he could, dragging out the click of the latch releasing until it was so quiet even he could barely hear it. With exaggerated care he pushed on the door with his other paw, and it noiselessly swung open before coming to a stop when it hit something. There was a rumpled pile of clothes on the floor of the bathroom, an outfit nearly identical to the one Nicky had worn when they first met. A pair of khaki capris, a striped blouse, and that gaudy floral necktie she was fond of wearing as a belt. But on top of those crumpled bits of clothing were other pieces of Nicky's clothing Jude had never seen before. Pieces that were lacy and black.

Jude's mouth went dry and his traitorous eyes darted up from Nicky's underwear to the only place in the bathroom the vixen could be. There, in a bathtub that like everything else in the apartment was oversized for a fox, was Nicky, curled around herself into a ball. Her breathing was slow and even, her ears tucked against her skull. Her back was to Jude, the smooth expanse of red-orange fur unblemished and unbroken. Jude forced himself to look away, his ears burning, but it was too late. He had already seen a point under the fluff of Nicky's tail, a little patch of white fur that showed the strip that started on the underside of her muzzle ran all the way down. And nestled within that pure white fur, just barely visible, a smooth curve as pink as the inside of a seashell.

Jude almost slammed the door shut in his hurry to blot the sight out. He pulled at his ears, which burned in his paws. He was a dumb bunny after all, a dumb bunny who had done something awful. She was his partner, the best friend he had ever had, and she deserved someone better than him. Someone who had never hurt her as badly as he had with a few poorly chosen words and a lifetime of unconscious prejudice coming out in one awful moment before television cameras that had recorded everything for all eternity. Nicky had said she forgave him, but did she really? Could she ever look at him and see anything but the bunny who had hurt her so cruelly?

Some todd would have none of that history. He'd be able to love Nicky and she'd be able to love him back with all her heart. And he certainly wouldn't peep on her when she was naked. Taking the key from her purse—which Jude hadn't even noticed where it was in the bathroom, he'd been so distracted—was off the table. If he did wake her up when she was totally naked, what would she think?

Jude had a brief vision of Nicky calling him a creep, of the vixen screaming as she tried to cover herself. He couldn't do that. Couldn't handle that. So what did that leave? He could simply prop the front door open. It'd only take him a few minutes to run to the lobby, use the bathroom, and come back. That was the simple solution. But...

Jude knew that Nicky's apartment wasn't exactly in the best part of Zootopia. There was a reason it had been so cheap, and it wasn't only because it was further from the Precinct One station than his own apartment. There had been a _stabbing_ , for god's sake, not even two blocks away from Nicky's apartment on her first day as an officer of the ZPD. Jude's imagination ran again, and he saw what could happen if he left Nicky's apartment with the door propped open to keep it from locking. Some crazy mammal—and he imagined an elephant, because if he was going to imagine a mammal who could overpower a vixen, why not go as big as possible—taking advantage of the unlocked door, forcing his way in to rob her. The elephant would take everything of value, but Nicky wouldn't stand for home invasion, of course. No, she would try to talk the intruder down. As though it was a movie playing before his eyes, Jude could see what happened next, the elephant swatting Nicky aside with a contemptuous wave of a single massive paw. Nicky would fly into the wall with an awful cracking noise, her spine shattering as the unyielding steel beams behind the thin drywall met her back. Jude could see Nicky breathing her last, coughing up blood as she lay on the floor, wracked with pain and crippled as she begged someone to help. Jude knew he would come back too late, and he'd have to deal with the memory of his own failure, and Nicky's last rattling breath, for the rest of his life.

Jude shook his head to clear the vision even as he danced from one foot to the other. That was the absolute worst case scenario, but it really was a lousy neighborhood. Even if an insane elephant robber didn't take advantage of the unlocked door, there was no telling what else could happen. Maybe that todd who had been so interested in taking Nicky out for a date was a creepy stalker, patiently waiting for his opportunity to strike. If Nicky's apartment was unlocked and the vixen was passed out in her bathroom, Jude nowhere nearby as he used the lobby bathroom, what might that fox do?

Jude tried pushing the awful thought aside, but not before a vision of that todd laughing with menacing delight as he found the unlocked door came to his head. Leaving Nicky's apartment simply wasn't an option. And even if he left for good, using a bathroom and then returning to his own apartment, what would Nicky think? She'd probably think that Jude had abandoned her, that he wasn't even a good enough friend to stay at her side in case she needed any help while she slept off all the alcohol she had drank. How much had she had, anyway? Jude tried to remember how many shots, mixed drinks, and beers Nicky had gulped down, but he couldn't. It seemed like every officer in the ZPD had bought her their own personal favorite, and Nicky had drank all of them.

With that thought, another idea popped into Jude's head. What if Nicky was too drunk? She had been a little unsteady on the way back to her own apartment, but what if her stomach full of booze caught up with her? The idea of Nicky choking to death on her own vomit suddenly seemed as real as the thrumming and gurgling of the vixen's refrigerator coming from the kitchen.

Any thought of leaving Nicky fled Jude; how could he possibly leave when there were so many ways for her to suffer? But Jude knew he had to do something about his need to pee; in the brief amount of time since he had woken up it had gone from urgent to undeniable. But Jude had no idea what he could do. Nicky's apartment only had the one bathroom, and leaving wasn't an option, which didn't leave him with much. Jude's eyes darted around the dim apartment, searching for anything that might be of help, but he saw nothing.

The living room was almost entirely unfurnished, mostly empty except for the couch he had slept on and the photograph hanging on the wall. Nicky's bedroom, which he had never been in, was almost invisible with the lights off, and it wasn't as though Nicky would have a toilet there. The kitchen was probably the nicest part of the apartment, with gleaming new stainless steel appliances and counters of actual marble, but it wasn't as though—

Jude's eyes suddenly stopped as he looked at the kitchen sink. Pipes were pipes, weren't they? And Nicky had a half-empty bottle of dish soap perched next to the faucet, an empty dish rack with a scrubbing brush and a roll of paper towels in a wooden holder standing nearby. The answer, Jude realized, was obvious.

All he had to do was use the sink, and then clean it as thoroughly as possible with some paper towels and soap. Nicky would never have to know how Jude had used the sink, and it'd be perfectly clean. Pipes were pipes, after all, and as long as he aimed carefully there wouldn't be much of a mess to clean up. It was as close to perfect as he could get, and Jude all but sprinted over to the sink, hopping up to the counter in a single leap.

Jude fumbled with his fly—it'd be one of life's cruel ironies if he wet himself right before achieving relief—and arranged himself just so over the empty sink. For an instant, Jude felt nothing but the bliss of emptying his complaining bladder, the stream of urine almost silent as it went down the drain. "Carrots?" Nicky's voice suddenly came from somewhere behind Jude, "Why are you peeing in my sink?"

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Well, I suppose this merits some explanation, doesn't it? This story is very much unlike any of my previous works, and has no direct connection to them besides being its own thing as an alternate universe story. It's much shorter, at only two chapters and a bit under ten thousand words total. Most obviously, it's erotica. And there's no mystery to it whatsoever, except perhaps the one of why I wrote something like this.

The simple reason is this: I'm working on another story that is going to have some explicit sexual elements that are going to be important to the plot and character development. As such, fading to black and skipping over it, as I've done before, simply isn't an option. But I don't want that to be my first attempt at such a part of a story, so I decided to try my hand at writing erotica in a vacuum, so to speak. This story is the result of that. I deliberately set out to write something that wouldn't let my rely on the crutch of copying an existing work in the fandom, and the scenario that came to mind happened to be a gender swapped setting.

I hope you also enjoy the wonderful piece of art that the amazing TheWyvernsweaver did to accompany this story!

If this isn't to your taste, I can certainly understand that. Not everyone enjoys erotica, and if that describes you I seriously recommend you turn back now and never read the second chapter. If you do enjoy stories of this kind, I'd certainly appreciate any feedback you might have and whether you think it's a good example of its type. My overall goal, as always, is to improve as a writer, and in the end this story is practice. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll enjoy the conclusion next week!


	2. Chapter 2

Jude couldn't help his reaction. He spun around with a squawk of surprise, and his feet immediately lost traction on the slick stainless steel lip of the sink. He lost his balance and fell, his scut painfully catching against the counter's edge before the back of his head cracked into the cabinet under the sink an instant later.

"Cheese and rice got all muddy!" he swore as he hit the unyielding tile of the floor.

His head ached. His tail hurt. His fur was disgustingly hot and wet—and he didn't want to think about _why_ —and he was sprawled out on the kitchen floor in front of Nicky, his pants literally down. It was the single most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to him and he half-wished the floor would open up and swallow him whole. Nicky was staring at him, her mouth an O of surprise, and Jude could feel heat crawling up the back of his neck and into his ears. He covered himself with his paws—as if it wasn't too late for her to have already seen exactly what he had—and spoke before he could think, the words tumbling out. "I'm so sorry!" he said, "But you were sleeping in the bathroom and I didn't want to wake you up and— and I could have left and really I should have left but I thought what if— what if someone broke in and so I decided to use the kitchen sink and I know it's really gross and then you surprised me and I swear I'll clean your kitchen and—"

He had been catching his breath in heaving jerks, but what interrupted him at last was Nicky's reaction. She was laughing.

Her chest heaved with it, tears forming at the corners of her eyes as she gasped for breath. "Oh, _Carrots!_ " she managed at last as Jude's words petered out, "Even your swearing is cute."

Nicky was wearing a green bathrobe that must have been hanging on the back of the bathroom door, and from the generous amount of fluffy fur it showed at the neckline Jude doubted she was wearing anything under it. "Come on, now," she said, and she walked over to Jude, hauling him up into the air by his armpits.

In her grasp Jude couldn't cover himself, or even catch his pants as they slide off his legs and hit the floor. Nicky wasn't looking down, though, but was simply staring Jude right in the eyes. "First things first, Carrots," Nicky said, and Jude could swear there was a twinkle of amusement in her vividly green eyes, "You're going to take a shower before that smell gets stuck in your fur. Unless you want the other officers talking next time you have a shift."

"I'm—" Jude began, but Nicky cut him off almost instantly.

"Ah ah ah," she said, "I'm doing you a favor here."

She was walking over to the bathroom as she spoke, seeming completely unburdened by Jude. Once he was inside the bathroom, Nicky lowered him until his feet were touching the cool tile of the floor. "I think I've got some clothes that were a bit too big for Finnick," she said, "So go on, get in the shower."

"I—" Jude started again, but Nicky was already gone, closing the bathroom door after herself.

Jude slumped to the floor. How could he possibly have been such an idiot? Nicky probably thought he was some kind of gross weirdo now, and he couldn't even blame her if she did. Using a sink as a toilet was one of those things that had seemed perfectly logical in the moment but completely insane afterwards. Jude sighed gloomily as he stripped off his shirt—which as his last remaining piece of clothing, didn't seem particularly important—and climbed into the shower. The water stung as it burned against his fur and to his skin, but it was the kind of pain Jude could almost enjoy as he savagely scrubbed at himself with Nicky's shampoo. _I must be the dumbest bunny who ever lived_ , Jude thought to himself. There was no question in his mind that Nicky would think less of him for what he had done. Maybe she'd even request a different partner, just to sort of prove what a bad decision he had made.

Jude was weighing the pros and cons of simply never leaving the shower when he heard the door click open. "I found a shirt and some pants that should fit you," Nicky called, and Jude found himself profoundly grateful that he had closed the opaque white shower curtain.

The absolute last thing he needed was for Nicky to see him as he was, and his ears were good enough that he could hear the muffled thump of clothes being dropped on the closed lid of the toilet even over the steaming rush of water from the shower head. But even if his hearing hadn't been particularly good, Jude had no doubt that he would have heard the hiss of the shower curtain being drawn back.

"I'm naked!" Jude protested, screwing his eyes shut in a pointless kind of instinctual rush, as though not being able to see her would mean that she couldn't see him.

It felt as though the blood flowing to his ears hadn't left any for the rest of his body, but there was nothing wrong with his hearing. "That's generally how showers work, yes," Nicky said, the smile evident in her words, "But you got me, too, and I can't say I want to smell like you used me as a urinal."

Jude felt himself flush again, his ears burning harder than they ever had. Until, that was, he heard the sounds of Nicky's bathrobe hitting the floor and the vixen climbing into the shower behind him.

"W—What are you doing?" Jude all but squealed, burning with embarrassment as he did his best to cover himself, his eyes still closed.

"Showering the smell out of my fur, same as you," Nicky said, and the amusement was evident in her voice, "No time to waste, you know."

"But—"

"Come on, Carrots," Nicky said, "It's nothing I haven't already seen."

Jude discovered that it was possible for his ears to flush even more than they already had. She really had seen everything, and from the amusement in her voice he doubted she'd been particularly impressed. "I'm really sorry," Jude mumbled, and he opened his eyes, staring at the bottom of the tub and the water swirling down the drain.

He tried not to pay attention to the sounds coming from behind him, or the way that one of Nicky's arms snaked past him, brushing his shoulder, to grab the bottle of shampoo. She was standing behind him, totally naked, and rubbing the stuff into her fur. Despite the blistering heat of the shower, Jude felt himself shiver. "I'm sorry, what was that?" Nicky asked.

Even over the warmth of the water Jude could feel her breath against his ear. "I'm sorry," Jude repeated, "I can—"

"Oh, don't worry about it," Nicky cut him off airily.

She was, he could tell, still leaning over, her head just inches behind his. "Someday you'll look back at all of this and laugh too."

That didn't seem especially likely, but the fact that she hadn't called him a disgusting creep had to count for something. "Actually, if you're going to apologize for something, it's the water," she continued.

Jude blinked, watching the droplets flow off his sodden fur. "The water?" he repeated.

"I don't know how you can stand it this hot," she said, and Jude saw Nicky's arm reach past him for the tap.

But it wasn't just her arm that moved. Jude could feel her body pressing against his back, and the touch was electric. His entire body stiffened, his blood finding a better place to go than his ears. Jude inhaled sharply, feeling himself throb as his cock swelled. His vision narrowed until Nicky's paw on the tap was all he could see, but the nerves of his back had become so exquisitely sensitive that he could feel everything. "Isn't this better?" she murmured, her lips right against one of Jude's ear as she twisted the knob.

The softness of Nicky's breasts against him, contrasted with the sudden hardness of her nipples, was beyond any fantasy Jude could have dreamed of. She was pushing herself against him and he was helpless to do anything, barely even able to stand. The strength seemed to have gone out of his legs and he found himself pushing back against Nicky, drawing their bodies together until there was no separation. "Y—Yes," Jude gasped as he looked up.

All he could see was the underside of Nicky's muzzle, the corners turning up in a smirk. "Oh," Nicky said, and she nodded sagely, brushing her cheek against his, "So you _are_ interested in me."

Her paws were suddenly around him, caressing his chest as she ran her fingers through his fur. Jude wished she'd never stop. "And here I thought I might have been throwing myself at you like an idiot," Nicky said, "You didn't think I was really so drunk I needed to lean on you all the way home, did you?"

Nicky's tone was light and teasing, but Jude thought he heard the briefest flicker of tension in it. The realization—that _she_ had been worried that _he_ would reject her—seemed to warm his whole body in a way even the former stinging heat of the shower hadn't. "You love me?" Jude asked.

It was a stupid question—they were both naked, standing in a shower, and Nicky was still running her paws through his fur as she held him tight against her chest—but Jude wanted to hear the answer. He wanted to hear that she felt the same way he did, that she had been tormented by her own fantasies. Instead, she asked a question.

"Do you know what I see when I look at you?"

Jude did his best to consider it honestly, which was difficult with so much of his attention taken by the feel of Nicky against him. Nicky had commented on his appearance before, and not just to call him cute. The first time they had met up in that wonderful but too brief window after her graduation but before her first day on the job, Nicky had taken one look at Jude's clothes—a faded red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up and well-worn jeans—and asked with mock seriousness if it was still the 90s back in Bunnyburrows. And then she had laughed and said he looked adorable, but Jude had assumed she was just teasing.

But beyond that, what would the vixen think of him? Jude knew he was broad-shouldered and a bit above average height ( _for a bunny_ , that hateful voice whispered in the back of his head), but the only fox Jude had ever met that he was taller or stronger than was Finnick. Even Gideon, who had probably never exercised on purpose after he dropped out of high school and didn't have to go to gym class anymore, would loom above him. And Gideon was at least fox-shaped; to Nicky Jude had no idea how his features had to look. Compared to a fox his ears were too long, his muzzle and tail too short, and his fur was a bland shade of gray rather than a fiery red. And so he went with the only guess that he knew would be right. "A bunny?" Jude ventured.

Nicky barked out a short laugh, and Jude could practically _feel_ her roll her eyes. "I'm not blind, you know. Of course I see a bunny."

"But," she continued, and she ran a paw fondly through his fur, "I also see the first mammal in a very long time to believe in me. Of _course_ I love you."

They were the sweetest words Jude had ever heard, spoken with perfect sincerity. Suddenly he could see the path forward, could see that if he said the same that she would have him. Everything he had never known he wanted, before he met her, and all he had to do was say three simple words. His mouth had gone dry, full of a metallic taste that bit at his palate.

He couldn't do it.

Not because he didn't love her—he did, with a depth that seemed all-consuming. Not because he didn't want her—he did, his body aching in a way it never had. But because some part of him thought she deserved better than him, the bunny who had bungled his way into causing the worst riots Zootopia had ever seen and only barely fixed with her help. The scars on the city were still raw, the subtle signs still there. The anti-predator graffiti that still popped up, fresh and bright, even after Bellwether's arrest. The way some disagreements spiraled out of control into brawls when they started between a predator and a prey. And what about the scars Jude had left on Nicky's heart?

Jude pushed Nicky's arms aside and turned around. Some part of his brain, far removed from the situation, could appreciate how stunning Nicky was. How without clothes, she was even more shapely than he could have ever guessed. How he wanted nothing more than to reach up and pull her head down for a kiss.

But he pushed all of that aside.

"What if I'm not... enough for you?" Jude asked.

His words felt totally inadequate to convey what he really meant. There was too much he could never give her. Kits, if that was something she wanted. In-laws who wouldn't make her uncomfortable. A life with a partner outside the police force. All of those little things Nicky could just take for granted if she found herself a todd.

From the wicked smile that crossed Nicky's muzzle, he wasn't sure if she had understood him or not. "That's my choice to make," Nicky said, "And I think you are. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, you know."

Warm relief filled Jude's chest. She _had_ known what he meant, and she still wanted him. Jude licked at his lips, preparing to say the words he knew he meant with all his heart, but Nicky cocked her head to the side. "Oh, Carrots," she said, "Were you afraid you're too small for me down here?"

One of her fingers drifted below Jude's waist and grazed against his shaft. He had softened, fretting over his worries, but Nicky gave no sign that she found him pathetic. He couldn't help but shiver against the touch, the sensitive skin burning with pleasure. "I—" he began, but Nicky cut him off.

"You have fingers, don't you?" Nicky asked.

The words were a gentle whisper against his ear as she entwined her own larger fingers into his. Her paw pads were as rough against his palm as her fur was silky smooth, the warmth of her pressing against him. "Uh huh," Jude replied breathlessly.

There didn't seem to be enough oxygen in the air, his vision strobing at the edges. "And you have a tongue, don't you?" Nicky asked, but before Jude could answer the vixen's mouth was against his.

The taste of her was like nothing he could have ever expected, nothing he had ever experienced. Nicky nibbled at his lip, her sharp teeth so gentle that the pleasure never gave way to pain. "I love you, Nicky," Jude said when he had caught his breath.

"Then let's get out of the shower," Nicky said, and she turned the water off.

* * *

Nicky toweled herself dry with a ferocity Jude couldn't hope to match—not if he wanted to last long enough to actually do something, anyway. His balls felt heavy and full, as though the slightest touch would set them off, and he was still delicately trying to dry off his waist when Nicky snatched him up by the armpits again, her bathrobe and the clothes she had grabbed him entirely forgotten. "I'm done waiting, Jude," she all but growled.

As she carried him she was smooshing his head between her breasts, which might have been modest for a vixen but were far more than a pawful for Jude. His head was buried in the thick fur of her neck, and so close to Nicky's skin the scent of her was intoxicating. It was also suffocating, and as he squirmed, his erection bouncing against Nicky's belly, she spun him around easily. "Watch where you put that thing," she said, and while there was a playfulness to her voice there was also a sort of needy hunger Jude had never heard before.

Maybe it should have been humiliating, to be held as though Nicky was a kit cuddling a stuffed animal against her chest, but it wasn't. He could actually see where they were going, for one thing, and the door to Nicky's bedroom getting closer and closer had him about dying of anticipation.

He could also feel Nicky's breasts jiggling ever so slightly as she ran, her nipples pressed against the backs of his ears.

When the vixen reached the bedroom door, she fumbled for a moment, carrying Jude with one arm, squeezing him even tighter as she reached out with her free paw for the doorknob. Nearly the moment they were inside, before Jude had the opportunity to do much more than get a general impression of Nicky's room in the dim light that came through the window from the street below, she had tossed him on the bed.

He bounced a little as he landed flat on his back, the box spring barely creaking under his weight. The bed was enormous, so large that the mattress didn't look as though it could have fit through the door, and Jude couldn't help but wonder if the wall had been put up after the bed was in. It'd kind of be a stupid way of furnishing a bedroom—what would happen when it was time to replace it?—but when Jude looked up from the bed and saw Nicky his thoughts simply stopped.

He had seen Nicky naked before, even if it was so recent he could barely believe it had happened. Had a conversation with her, in fact. But he had been wrapped up in his own thoughts almost the entire time to the point that her beauty had taken on a kind of abstract quality. Now, as she leaped onto the bed in a single smooth motion, he couldn't notice anything but the way she looked.

There was a grace to her that no doe could have ever matched, her every move full of an unthinking strength. The look in her eyes was predatory in a way that a different rabbit might have been frightened of, but not Jude. "So, Carrots," she purred as she crawled up the bed, propping herself up over him with her arms, "What do _you_ like?"

For a long moment, Jude looked up at her. His brain seemed to have frozen, and when he spoke it was not nearly as suave as he would have hoped. "I don't know."

Nicky blinked. "You don't just mean with a predator, do you? Like, at all?"

Jude shook his head mutely, and Nicky flopped over on her side so she was lying next to him. "So," she said, drawing out the word, "You wanna talk about that?"

"Almost half the does in my class in high school dropped out because they got pregnant, OK?" Jude said, feeling his ears heat up again, "I couldn't... I couldn't risk doing that to someone. I couldn't be a deadbeat, you know? And if I dropped out to do the right thing and raise a kit then I couldn't be a police officer."

"Uh huh," Nicky said.

She had propped herself up on one elbow, looking down at his face. Her expression was almost infinitely skeptical. "And because...?"

Nicky had seen right through him. "And all the does thought I was weird," Jude admitted.

Nicky arched an eyebrow. "I've never seen another rabbit built like you," she said.

She dragged one finger slowly through his fur, tracing a line across his shoulder and to the muscles of his abdomen. "No one wanted this?" she asked, poking at his stomach and making Jude laugh involuntarily at the pressure.

"Not enough, I guess," Jude said.

There had been does he had been interested in, after all. It wasn't as though he had been some kind of machine, devoted to nothing but becoming a police officer. Well, that might have been _mostly_ true, but it wasn't _entirely_ true. More than once, Jude had tried asking a doe out, but it had never gone particularly well. Then again, his idea of romance might have been unduly influenced by TV cops, and he winced at the memory of one of his first attempts.

"Then they were very dumb bunnies," Nicky said, and a smile flashed suddenly across her muzzle, "Because now you're _mine_."

She rolled over again until she was straddling his chest, and she pushed on his arms with both paws. "And it looks like I'll have to teach you," she said.

Jude couldn't have moved if he wanted to, the vixen easily holding him flat against the bed. But he didn't want to move. He wanted _her_. Nicky made no move to draw closer to him, though, and the gap between them seemed to taunt Jude. "Lesson one," Nicky said, a scholarly air filling her voice, "There's more to sex than you jamming your dick in one of my foxholes."

She paused a moment, and when she continued it was in her usual slightly teasing tone. "And if your idea of talking dirty is 'I can't wait to jam my dick in your foxhole,' I'm going to laugh when you say that. Can't help it."

Jude nodded. No mention of foxholes. Seemed a simple enough rule to follow. "When did you last file your nails?" Nicky asked abruptly.

"Yesterday, why do you as—" Jude's question ended in a gasp.

Nicky had grabbed his right paw as he began answering, guiding his first two fingers past her thighs and into her folds. The vixen was slick and almost feverishly warm.

And tight.

Her inner walls squeezed down on his fingers like a trap, and when Nicky rolled her hips Jude could feel every bit of it. It had only been the tips of his fingers inside her at first, but as she moved around him they slid in deeper with just enough resistance to draw the sensation out. "Lesson— Lesson two," Nicky said, her voice breathless, "I need you to take your thumb and—"

Jude began moving his thumb before she had quite finished speaking, pressing it against the nub at the top of her cleft. " _Around_ my clit," Nicky hissed, recoiling ever so slightly, "Around it. It's not a button."

"S— Sorry," Jude managed, starting to slowly move his thumb around the little bit of flesh.

The skin around it was puffy and so soft it almost didn't seem real. Jude realized he could _feel_ the blood rushing into Nicky's nethers, burning against his fingers.

"Just— Just keep doing that," Nicky said, shaking her head.

With his fingers inside her, Jude could feel her entire body moving as the vixen did so. "Now," Nicky said, and she swallowed hard, "Curl your fingers and press— press against me."

Jude could feel the slickness of Nicky's insides as he moved his fingers, her juices seeming to grow thicker and even hotter as he did. "You can press a little harder than that," Nicky said, her voice wavering a bit.

"Like this?"

Nicky's eyes had been locked into Jude's, but they suddenly went unfocused. He felt her walls suddenly tighten and relax and his fingers, tighten and relax. Jude saw her toes curl back in pleasure as she positively whimpered, gasping as she threw back her head. It was the hottest thing Jude had ever seen, and the idea that he had done it seemed almost impossible. He had made Nicky go completely speechless with nothing but two fingers and his thumb, and Jude was suddenly painfully aware of his cock.

Every previous time he had ever been aroused, even the times he had done something about it himself, couldn't compare. His shaft, just barely visible in the gap between Nicky's thighs as she held herself inches above his chest, seemed thicker than it had ever been, the flesh of it so tight that the pleasure was almost pain. And then, as Nicky struggled to catch her breath, the feathery touch of her tail brushed against the tip and Jude nearly came.

He gasped, torn between the overriding need to blow his load against Nicky's back and his own desperate desire to last. "Nicky—" he managed to say.

"You're going to cum?"

Jude didn't seem to have the breath for words. His heart was a pounding jackhammer in his chest, his arms and legs trembling, and it was all he could do to nod. "Not until you're inside me, you're not," Nicky snarled.

Her face was beautiful and terrible, her lips peeled back from her fangs in a mockery of a smile. He had never seen this side of her, forceful where she was usually indirect, predatory where she usually made herself as charmingly inoffensive as possible. He loved it, and loved her more than he would have ever thought possible.

Nicky pulled his paw out of her, the air of the bedroom feeling shockingly cool against his fingers, which trailed clear strands of liquid on their way out. Before Jude had the chance to ask what he should do next, she pushed herself backwards and—

Nicky jammed his dick into her foxhole.

The thought occurred to him, delirious as a fever dream, but the sensation of her around his most sensitive part blotted out any everything else, any kind of humor Jude might have found in his private joke gone. She had been tight around his fingers. Around his cock, she seemed even tighter, squeezing him with a vice-like strength. Her inner walls rolled against him as she moved herself up and down with exquisite slowness, and she was beyond words.

He was too, but it didn't matter. He picked up the rhythm through what felt like instinct alone, matching her every move even as she started moving faster and faster. Nicky yipped, a noise he had never heard her make before, her mouth open wide as her entire body heaved. The scent of her arousal filled his nostrils, overpowering the floral shampoo she had used with her own smell, so thick and heavy that Jude's nose twitched with it. _Fox!_ some distant and primitive part of his brain cried. _Fox! Nearby!_

It made the feeling all the better, the thrill of danger almost as enticing as the feeling of the vixen around him. She was bigger and stronger than he was. She could snap him in half if she wanted to, break his neck with a single bite from her jaws. But all she had eyes for was his pleasure.

A creeping sensation of warmth flowed through Jude's body as though every nerve ending from the tips of his ears to the bottoms of his feet were feeding into his cock. His balls tightened, the shifting of them in his sack like a breeze fanning an inferno, and Jude came.

He trembled against Nicky as he did, over and over as she milked him dry. The release was sweeter than anything Jude had ever experienced, like Christmas and his being assigned to Precinct One and Bellwether being arrested and Nicky becoming his partner rolled into a single glorious moment that refused to end. Colors jumped into a sharpness he had never experienced before, the red of Nicky's fur shifting in the light like a crackling fire, and Jude gave a wordless cry that seemed to come from his very core.

There were some things that Jude couldn't control simply because he was a rabbit buck. One of them was that, in the wake of his orgasm, he always seemed to lose control of his limbs and flop over on his back. It made masturbation tricky. And messy. And as he came in Nicky, as the waves of pleasure crested and started receding, he knew it would happen the way it always did.

It didn't.

As Jude's cock shuddered one last time and he felt his limbs start pulling back, Nicky took over the tempo entirely, grinding herself against him even as he could do nothing but lie on his back and stare up into her face. It should have been impossible for anything to feel so good, to be so exquisite that there was room in his head for nothing else but the feeling of it.

It might have been seconds, or it might have been minutes. Time had completely lost any meaning; his world had been reduced to the feeling of Nicky against him and her face above him. Her ears, he saw, were flushed, her tongue lolling out one side of her mouth. Her eyes, usually half-closed at a cynical half-mast, were screwed nearly shut, the whites the only part visible as they rolled back into her head. Nicky positively throbbed around him, and the entire world seemed to go briefly gray, his ears full of a roaring sound like the ocean as he heard the flow of his own blood. Jude cried out, and he had no idea what he had said.

When Jude came back to himself, Nicky had rolled off to his side, gazing back at him. "Not bad for a rookie," she drawled when he managed to prop himself up and face her.

"You were—"

"I know, I know," Nicky interrupted, waving aside his words with one paw, "Fantastic? Amazing? Wonderful? Stop me or I'll go all day."

"All of those," Jude said, and he pulled himself close enough to give her a quick peck on the lips, "I love you, Nicky."

"Of course you do," Nicky said, grinning, but Jude thought he saw a hint of a blush creep into her ears.

The vixen sighed contentedly as she sank back down into the mattress, her chest moving like bellows. She reached out and wrapped one arm around Jude, pulling him to her side. "This is nice," Nicky said, squeezing Jude's shoulder, "Much more comfortable afterwards without a knot."

Jude simply murmured wordlessly and threw an arm around her. Maybe the thought of her with a todd should have made him jealous, but it didn't. He hadn't been her first, but Jude found he couldn't muster up any kind of energy to care about that. If she hadn't known what she was doing either, it probably wouldn't have turned out quite so well. They could talk about it later, if she wanted to. Discuss what they had become and what they wanted to do next. But all of that could wait. Jude held himself a few inches from her back, turning to spoon her. She really was quite a bit larger than he was, but that hadn't mattered either. They had fit together as perfectly as puzzle pieces, and Jude couldn't help a dopey smile from crossing his face.

Nicky had a nice back, too. He hadn't had the chance to see much of it uncovered by clothing, but her butt was as finely shaped as a fresh peach. With her tail curled back and around his waist, he could admire it all the better, so taut and toned beneath that gorgeous fur, and he felt the first stirrings of desire as he pulled himself tight against her.

" _Christ_ , Jude, how much stamina do you have?" Nicky asked, turning to face him and looking down at his crotch and his swelling cock.

She was still panting with exertion, and Jude couldn't help but admire the view of her creamy white chest as it heaved. He placed a paw at her hip, enjoying the feeling of her against him, so warm and so soft, and did he best to match the vixen's most wicked smile. "A lot," he said, as he drew his paw through her fur and toward one nipple.

It occurred to him that there might be some other lessons Nicky could teach him, other things that might drive her wild. She had already shown him what he could do with his fingers, but not with his tongue. Jude's smile broadened as a thought struck him, and he laughed. There was one stereotype, at least, that he was going to prove fell woefully short. "For a bunny."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

And that's that for this particular story. I don't really have much else to say on this chapter that I didn't already mention in the last chapter notes. Like I said, this was my first attempt at this sort of writing, so I'd be quite grateful for any sort of feedback you might have. Thanks for reading!


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